Hard drive health declining, need to prepare


  1. kesman1
    Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
       New #1

    Hard drive health declining, need to prepare


    Hi All,

    My hard drive is starting to show signs of age now and I think I'm going to have to replace it sooner rather than later. The point of my post is to find out the best way of handling the transfer to a new drive and keep my Windows 7 copy intact. I have all my personal stuff backed up on other drives etc so I don't really have much too lose here but I want to be able to install my Windows 7 copy on a new replacement drive without having to buy a new OS. My Acer laptop came with Windows 7 pre-installed and with no recovery disks.

    Is there a way of backing up Windows 7 or creating recovery disks from my laptop now? I believe there may be a few sites online where I can download a Windows 7 iso then burn and install from that in the future, can anyone point me in the right direction here? Also, in any case can I use the product key on the label on the laptop to activate the new install of Windows 7 on the new drive? What's the best way of doing things in a situation like this?
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  3. ignatzatsonic
    Posts : 12,012
    Windows 7 Home Premium SP1, 64-bit
       New #2

    kesman1 said:
    Hi All,
    The point of my post is to find out the best way of handling the transfer to a new drive and keep my Windows 7 copy intact............. I want to be able to install my Windows 7 copy on a new replacement drive without having to buy a new OS. My Acer laptop came with Windows 7 pre-installed and with no recovery disks.

    Is there a way of backing up Windows 7 or creating recovery disks from my laptop now? I believe there may be a few sites online where I can download a Windows 7 iso then burn and install from that in the future, can anyone point me in the right direction here? Also, in any case can I use the product key on the label on the laptop to activate the new install of Windows 7 on the new drive?
    You could do any of the following:

    1: download a legit ISO and do a clean install, activating with the product key on the laptop COA sticker

    2: clone the existing installation to the new drive.

    3: make an image of the existing installation and restore that image to the new drive.

    Most would point you to the first choice unless you have a major aversion to taking the time to re-install and configure your applications.

    The Windows ISOs are here:

    Official Windows 7 SP1 ISO from Digital River « My Digital Life


    Your Product Key is good for ONLY the version that was installed on the laptop at the Acer factory.

    You just burn the ISO to a disk and install from the disk, deleting all partitions when you get to the partitioning screen.

    If you want to avoid a clean install, I'd try cloning with Macrium. If that failed, I'd try imaging with Macrium.

    You also should be able to make recovery disks through an OEM partition placed on the hard drive by Acer. Those would only give you a restore to factory specs, not a clean install. Look at your manual or Acer online--it will be something you access through menus and applications supplied by Acer.
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  4. kesman1
    Posts : 2
    Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
    Thread Starter
       New #3

    Thanks ignatzatsonic

    I almost always prefer a clean install so I think I'll get the ISO and burn it to a disk then install from there with the new drive. Sound like the best way to go.

    Cheers
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